VAMPIRE SURVIVAL - ENHYPEN

Escape 2

Ni-ki flung the door open and disappeared through it, followed by Karina, Jungwon and Felix. I was left standing alone amongst the chaos, my heart beat as loud as the banging on the door. but then my survival instincts kicked in, and I bolted for the door. I caught sight of the others at the far side of the corridor and sprinted as fast as my legs could take me until I was almost behind Felix. But my sudden burst of energy didn't last very long, and I soon realised that Karina and Felix were even faster than Jungwon and Ni-ki. This is what they had meant about being too dangerous.

Suddenly they came to a stop a few meters ahead of me, and I skidded to a halt.

'What happened?' I asked.

'They installed a new lock on the door to the guarded walls,' Karina explained, barely panting.

'What are we going to do?' I whined, looking at the huge, sturdy looking lock. It was the largest lock I had seen in my life.

'Break it,' Karina replied in a swift tone. I stared at her as she pulled out something long and sharp from her pocket and raised her arms, coming down on the lock with a resounding 'thud'. She did this again twice, and the lock fell to the floor. I stared. Karina and Felix really were dangerous, and I was suddenly glad that they were on my side. Jungwon flung the door open and ran through it, us following behind. When we got to the other side, it was a different world. We were back in the midnight metropolis, and the shades of dark blue and purple speckled with white stars felt like a breath of fresh air from the industrial interior of the experiment center. Karina and Felix stopped running, looking at the skies around them and breathing slowly, and I could swear that I saw tears in their eyes. It made me wonder once more why they had never escaped, despite it being so easy. But as I turned to examine the world around us I saw a large metal wall surrounding us. This was why. The experiment center was teasing the children, making it look like it was so easy to escape, but then crushing their dreams. I had fallen for the same trick that Karina and Felix once had. I suddenly felt scared, terrified. But Jungwon and Ni-ki were still running toward the metal wall.

'Stop!' Felix shouted. 'We need a plan.' Jungwon and Ni-ki halted, turning to face Felix.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We crept up towards the wall, catching sight of two guards facing away from us. He was short but had broad shoulders and looked intimidating even from the back. Karina and Felix put a finger to their mouths, indicating to us to be quiet. Then they crept up behind the guards and wacked them hard in the head. They collapsed to the floor, and Felix grabbed their uniforms and caps and IDs. He passed them to Ni-ki and Jungwon.

'Put these on. You two are going to pretend to be guards bringing Sophie, Karina and I to the punishment area just outside the walls. Just make sure they don't see your faces. Its late at the night so the guards won't be too thorough. You should be able to walk through the doors, show them your ID and your arm to make sure you don't have the tattoo, and they'll let you go. Once we get to the punishment area, we go behind the walls and make a run for it.'

'Where do we run?'

'Into the woods. There are still drones about so its our safest option,' Jungwon suggested. The others nodded. Jungwon and Ni-ki slipped the overalls on and grabbed our wrists, pretending to be guards punishing children. Luckily Ni-ki was tall enough to pass for a short adult, towering over Karina and slightly taller than Felix, so he shielded Jungwon with his body and walked towards the main exit of the walls. They pulled their caps down over their faces and got their IDs ready. I drew my sleeve past my wrists so that none of my arm could be seen, and cowered behind Ni-ki, who was at least 15 cm taller than me.

'Go,' Felix instructed. We speed walked towards the wall, and Ni-ki and Jungwon drew their sleeves back, revealing scar-less arms. We reached the guards, who also had their caps down over their faces like it was a fashion statement, and I could feel Karina quivering next to me. Luckily this went with our cover story, and as predicted the guards merely glanced and Ni-ki and Jungwon's wrists and IDs and waved their hands as if to say 'Get on with it then'.

We walked as quickly as we dared out of the gates until we reached the small, dingy looking hut on the outside of the walls and were out of sight of the guards. Karina and Felix stared at the hut, shuddering. It seemed to bring back bad memories, and my eyes were drawn back to the cuts on their arms.

'It was that easy,' Karina breathed, her breath shaking, tears gathering and falling from her eyes. Felix put an arm around her shoulder, quivering himself.

'Thank you,' he nodded to the three of us. Jungwon and Ni-ki were already shedding their uniform.

'But we haven't escaped, not really. There are still drones on the search for us right now,' I pointed out.

'Drones?' Karina asked.

'When Ni-ki walked through the portal he set off an alarm and some drones started chasing us,' I explained. Karina's eyes widened.

'You may not be prisoners in the factory but the portal still recognised you as experimental vampires. When an experimental vampire enters the grounds without a tattoo, they sound off the alarm and do everything to track them down. They're onto you right now,' she explained.

'But... how do we get out?' Ni-ki asked.

'We can't, without someone who isn't one of us,' Felix declared. Then a realisation seemed to dawn on him and all eyes were on me. I looked around at them all then raised a confused finger at myself.

'Me? What do you want me to do?'

'It's simple, all you have to do is open the portal,' Felix told me.

'The portal?'